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An Analysis of Pronunciation Errors in English of
An Analysis of Pronunciation Errors in English of
A RESEARCH PROJECT
SUBMITTED IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONS) ENGLISH LANGUAGE
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
APRIL 2011
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the pronunciation errors in English made by six Chinese
Studies
undergraduates according to Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA)
with the
prediction that these pronunciation errors are neither coincidental nor randomly
made. These
errors reflect the interference of different sound systems on English
pronunciation. Speech
samples of the subjects pronunciation were taken through words and sentences
readings.
Data was collected and analysed with the guidance of phonemic transcription in
Cambridge
English Pronouncing Dictionary. Using Contrastive Analysis, potential difficulties
of English
pronunciation for the six subjects were listed by comparing the sound systems of
English,
Mandarin Chinese and Malay. On the other hand, the pronunciation errors of
subjects were
diagnosed into categories based on Error Analysis. The findings help to provide a
clear
understanding of the common characteristics of pronunciation errors made by
the subjects.
DECLARATION
I declare that the material contained in this paper is the end result of my own
work and that
due acknowledgement has been given in the bibliography and references to ALL
sources be
they printed, electronic or personal.
LIST OF TABLES
Tables Page
1 Comparison of the sounds of English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay 17
2 Pronunciation errors analysis of six Chinese studies undergraduates 23
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ME Malaysian English
RP Received Pronunciation
CA Contrastive Analysis
EA Error Analysis
SLA Second Language Acquisition
UTAR Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must give special thanks to my coursemate, Joey Low Xiao Xuan for her
invaluable
assistance. Her peer support and academic insights were invaluable throughout
the research.
Besides, I must thank the six students who participated in this research for their
time and
efforts to perform the tasks. Without their support this research could not have
been carried
out.
Last but not the least, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my family for
their warm
encouragement.
APPROVAL FORM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT i
DECLARATION ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
CHAPTERS
I INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Statement of the problem 3
1.3 Purpose of the study 4
1.4 Significance of the study 4
1.5 Research questions 5
1.6 Scope of the study 6
1.7 Definition of terms 6
II LITERATURE REVIEW 8
2.1 Contrastive analysis (CA) and error analysis (EA) 8
2.2 Interference of Mandarin Chinese on English
pronunciation/articulation
11
2.3 Comparison of the sounds of English, Chinese and
Malay
15
III METHODOLOGY 19
3.1 Restate Purpose and Research Questions 19
3.2 Subjects 19
3.3 Procedure and Instrumentation 20
3.4 Analysis plan 21
3.5 Assumptions 21
REFERENCES 51
APPENDICES 55
Appendix A Word list 55
Appendix B Sentences 56
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The role of the native language influences in the target language has been a
controversial topic. Most researchers agree that the learners native language
influences the
pronunciation of the target language. It is significant to compare the structure of
ones native
language with the structure of the target language, which is known as
Contrastive Analysis
(CA) (Gao, 2005). CA believes that the similarities of the two languages will
facilitate
learning whereas the differences will increase the learners difficulty to learn.
Hence, the
influence of native language in the learners target language can be positive and
negative.
Error Analysis (EA) is another type of linguistic study that focuses on the errors
learners make (Darus & Subramaniam, 2009). EA is a useful method to help
teachers predict
Chinese students may encounter difficulties with English sounds due to the
interference from their native language. It is difficult for them to produce certain
English
sounds which do not exist in Mandarin Chinese. For instance, some English
consonants do
not exist in Mandarin Chinese such as /v/, //, //, etc. Therefore, they may
substitute these
sounds with similar ones in their mother tongue as they cannot find the
counterparts in
Mandarin Chinese. There are vowels in both Mandarin Chinese and English, but
the two
kinds of vowels have many differences in phoneme and articulation. Due to the
differences
between English and Chinese vowels, students are not aware of the lack of long
and short
vowels in Mandarin Chinese which might have a negative effect on English
vowels. The
English vowels // and /u:/ are distinguished by quality and length. However, as
there is no
such distinction in Mandarin Chinese, English-Chinese bilingual learners might
regard them
as the same vowel (Zhang & Yin, 2009).
language in Malaysia and is widely used by all the various ethnic groups in
Malaysia (Phoon,
2010).
It cannot be denied that interference from the native language does exist. The
phonology of Chinese-influenced ME will be strongly influenced by Mandarin
Chinese
which is usually used in the home environment by Chinese (Phoon, 2010).
Students from
Chinese background tend to have difficulties with English sounds because they
are deeply
influenced by similar Mandarin Chinese sounds. The production of a particular
English sound
which does not exist in Mandarin Chinese can pose a difficulty for the Chinese
students.
Thus, the study focuses on the common characteristics of pronunciation errors
resulting from
native language (Mandarin Chinese) interference.
In the case of Malaysian learners who are multilingual, it is expected that the
interference patterns of languages will be complicated due to the involvement of
more than
two languages. In other words, a Malaysian Chinese student who speaks English
and is
exposed to Mandarin Chinese and Malay at the same time will illustrate
interference patterns
resulting from all three languages (Phoon, 2010). Hence, the study will also
examine and
discuss the influence of the Malay Language on the pronunciation of English
sounds.
It is hoped that the findings of this study would offer English Language teachers
better insights on effective teaching strategies in helping their students to
master English
pronunciation. The CA of the students native language and the target language
can greatly
facilitate the Second Language Acquisition (SLA). On the other hand, an EA
focuses on the
errors that students make. This can provide a significant understanding into how
a language is
actually learned by the students. Teachers should be well aware of the fact that
the majority
of their students have difficulties in producing certain English sounds. The
possible solutions
in preventing students from making errors repeatedly should be considered.
Hence, CA and
EA are useful methods to identify and explain difficulties faced by the learners.
It is also hoped that the findings of the study will help the students to
understand the
phonological differences between their native language and target languages.
Students should
not completely rely on their teachers to recognise the errors for them. It is
essential to make
the students consciously compare the two languages by themselves (Zhang &
Yin, 2009) and
understand the rules of the new language during the learning process.
Based on the problems and purposes stated in the previous sections, here are
two
research questions that are attempted to address in the study:
1. What are the common characteristics of pronunciation errors made by the six
Chinese
Studies undergraduate students?
2. Does the Malay Language influence the English pronunciation of the six
Chinese
Studies undergraduate students?
Basically the study is aimed to answer the two research questions to present an
analysis of pronunciation errors made by Chinese students. This study is
concerned only with
the consonants and vowels systems of English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay.
Although there are studies that claim that native language does influence in the
suprasegmental (intonation, stress and rhythm) and segmental (assimilation,
elision and
linking) features of speech, they are not analysed in this study.
6. Target language - Any language that learners are trying to learn apart from
their
native language. In second-language pedagogy, the target language is regarded
as
second language.
A CA, originally developed by Charles C. Fries (1945) and expanded and clarified
by
Robert Lado (1957), systematically compares the similarities and differences
between the
native languages and the target languages systems and predicts the difficulties
that learners
might encounter when learning a new language. CA which has been a part of
second
language pedagogy (as cited in Chang, 1996), believes that the similarities of the
two
languages will facilitate learning whereas the differences will increase the
learners difficulty
to learn (Tseng, 2008).
However, the similarities between native language and second language might
not
always facilitate learning. Research findings suggest that learners had difficulties
in
producing sounds that are similar to their first language sounds (Bohn & Flege,
1992;
Trofimovich et al,, 2007). Research findings also suggest that the degree of
perceived
similarities and differences between native language and second language
segments might
determine how second language segments are produced (Baker & Trofimovich,
2005; Guion
et al., 2000). In Aoyama et al.s (2004) study of Japanese differentiation
between /r/ and /1/,
English /r/ was perceptually more distinct from Japanese /r/ than English /1/. It
was therefore
suggested that the degree of perceived differences influences learners
competence in
acquiring second language phonetic segments (as cited in Tseng, 2008).
A much-quoted sentence from Charles Fries (1945) is: The most efficient
materials
are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language, to be
learned carefully
compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner. It
appeared that
from Fries insight that the best and the most efficient materials must be
provided along with
a comparison of the native languages and the target languages (as cited in
Chang, 1996).
Hence, CA is a good starting point to investigate why second language learners
make
systematic phonetical errors according to their linguistic backgrounds.
Larson-Freeman & Long (1991) made a similar statement in saying that there
was a
strong belief that a more successful pedagogy would result when the analyses of
the native
language and the target languages were taken into consideration. Therefore, CA
has been the
major field in SLA that is concerned with drawing the implications from structural
similarities and differences between languages.
Eltrug (1984) affirmed that mother tongue interference can contribute to a large
number of pronunciation errors made by students. Eltrug gave the example of an
Arab
student who says, I left my car in the barking. It appeared that the Arabic
student had
replaced the voiceless phoneme /p/ with its voiced counterpart /b/, and most
probably he
transferred the phonological patterns of the native language to the foreign
language as well
(as cited in Chang, 1996).
Wardhaugh (1970) proposed two hypotheses of CA: one is the strong version
and the
other is the weak. A strong hypothesis means that difficulties or errors which the
native
speakers will make in learning a second language can be predicted through CA.
The weak
hypothesis maintains that CA analyses the similarities and differences to explain
the errors
the second language learners make between their native language and the
second languages.
In other words, the strong hypothesis predicts and prognoses; the weak
hypothesis explains
and diagnoses.
systems were then compared. Areas of differences were sorted out. Finally, areas
of the
difficulty were predicted. This was the traditional starting point for conducting a
CA. The
elements that were missing from the second language would be assumed to
cause difficulty
(Archibald, 1998).
Later on, another part of second language pedagogy had been developed known
as
Error Analysis (EA). EA in terms of SLA was established in the 1960s by Stephen
Pit Corder
and colleagues. EA was an alternative to CA, an approach influenced by
behaviorism through
which applied linguists sought to use the differences between the learners'
native and target
languages to predict errors. EA indicated that CA was unable to predict a great
majority of
errors (Corder, 1967).
errors made by second language learners are potentially important for the
understanding of
the processes of SLA (as cited in Darus & Subramaniam, 2009).
Although CA has sometimes been criticised for its inadequacy to predict transfer
errors that learners make in actual learning contexts, it is still a useful method to
explain the
errors students have (Whitman & Jackson, 1972). Furthermore, Celce-Murcia &
Hawkins
(1985) pointed out that the real value of CA may not be its predictability of
transfer errors,
but rather its explanatory potential for learners errors. Therefore, it cannot be
denied that
interference from the native language does exist and CA can help the teacher to
explain
difficulties students have with the phonology (Brown, 2000).
As this study focuses only on Malaysian Chinese speakers, the languages they
commonly use are Chinese, English and Malay. Chinese dialects such as Hokkien
and
Cantonese are occasionally used by the Chinese speakers in the home
environment. As there
are many different Chinese dialects being used, it is difficult to illustrate them
particularly.
However, Chinese dialects share a lot of phonological properties with Mandarin
Chinese
(Phoon, 2010). Wang (1997) found that some native Chinese speakers living in
Canada had
serious problems in perceiving and producing English vowels. Later, Wang (2002)
through
both perception and production tests discovered that native Chinese speakers
often used their
Mandarin Chinese vowels in place of English vowels that do not have Chinese
counterparts.
Zhao (1995) presented a list of vowel and consonant errors which will likely be
made
by Chinese speakers from China. Zhao believes that Chinese speakers will
substitute target
sounds in English which are absent from Mandarin Chinese phonology with near
equivalent
sounds in Mandarin Chinese. Zhao also made two claims with respect to the
diphthongs of
English. The first is that Chinese speakers tend to reduce the distinction between
long and
short vowels in English, which would follow from the fact that Mandarin Chinese
does not
use length as a distinctive feature. She then proceeded to say that diphthongs
are like long
vowels, thus diphthongs which are influenced by Mandarin Chinese will be short.
Teng (2002)
also claimed that it is very possible for Chinese students when speaking English
to have
difficulty in differentiating long and short vowels as there is not usually a
counterpart in
Mandarin Chinese.
Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein (2010) and Goldstein et al. (2003) hypothesized that
bilingual learners perceive two similar sounds in their two languages as identical
and classify
them into the same phonemic category (as cited in Phoon, 2010). According to
Zhang & Yin
(2009), a particular sound which does not exist in the native language can
therefore pose a
difficulty for the second language learners to produce or some times to try to
substitute those
sounds with similar ones in their mother tongue. These sounds include both
vowels and
consonants. For example, there are no vowels like /e/, //, /e/, etc. and no such
consonants as
//, //, /v/, etc.
When learners have trouble in perceiving the sounds which do not exist in their
native
language, they tend to find the nearest equivalents to substitute those new
sounds. A typical
example will be the substitution of /s/ or /z/ for the English // as in the word
clothe, /a/ or
/e/ for the English // as in the word that. The erroneous substitution takes
place where the
English /r/ and // are very different from the Mandarin Chinese /r/ and /sh/. This
is because
the place of articulation and the manner of articulation of the sounds in two
languages are
relatively different. It is not surprising when the words English, pronunciation
and rose
are uncomfortably heard when produced by Chinese speakers (Zhang & Yin,
2009).
An English sound does exist in the native language, but not as separate
phonemes.
This simply means the Chinese speakers do not perceive it as a distinct sound
that makes
difference to meaning. The sound // does exist in Mandarin Chinese, but whether
the vowel
is long or short does not make any difference in meaning. For instance, the
English phonemes
// and /i:/ differ very much in meaning as in the words ship and sheep. The
result is that
Chinese speakers are not naturally aware of the difference in English and
Mandarin Chinese
and may not even hear that difference (Zhang & Yin, 2009). Chang (1987) also
found that
Chinese students often confused // with /i:/ because there is no such distinction
in Mandarin
Chinese.
The position of phonemes and the way of combining them are not the same
within the
two languages. English consonant clusters do not occur in Mandarin Chinese as
Mandarin
Chinese consonants are always followed by a vowel. According to Macleish
(1967), English
learners have high frequency problems with consonant clusters. Since there are
no consonant
clusters in Mandarin Chinese, it is difficult for English learners to produce those
sounds (as
cited in Peter, 2001). According to Zhang (2005), Chinese speakers may insert a
schwa // in
consonant clusters such as /blek/ for the word black or eliminate a consonant
by
pronouncing the word strawberry as /tr:beri/. Moreover, Gao (2005) claimed
that English
learners also tend to eliminate final consonant clusters in grammatical endings in
terms of the
plural, possessive and the third person singular which do not occur in the
Mandarin Chinese
grammar.
According to Sariyan, A. (2004) and Hashim & Lodge (1988), there are 19
consonants (b, p, d, t, g, k, s, h, m, n, , , , t, ) and 2 glides (j, w), 6
monophthongs (i, e, a,
u, o, ) and 3 diphthongs (ai, au, ua) in Malay phonology (as cited in Lodge,
2009). The
Malay language has many words borrowed from English, in particular scientific
and
technological terms. According to Phoon (2010), the effect of Malay loanwords
potentially
impacted the acquisition of some English sounds.
English and Malay are compulsory languages that are taught in the Malaysian
school
system. Malaysian children will eventually be able to speak, write and read in
these two
languages after entering preschool regardless of their ethnicity. Therefore,
knowledge of
phonological properties of the languages used by Malaysian children will help in
understanding the phonological acquisition of these languages in terms of
language
interference. Phonemically, English shared 18 consonants with either Mandarin
Chinese or
Malay, with six consonants (v, z, , , , ) distinct to English. It is worth
remarking that
some of these consonants which are distinct to English also appear in the Malay
language
(Phoon, 2010).
The phonetic realization of voiced stops /b/ in English is similar to unvoiced
stops /p/
in Mandarin Chinese and Malay. The /b/ sound in Malay is pre-voiced. The
phonetic
realization of /l/ in English and Mandarin Chinese is relatively dark [] but it is
produced as
clear [l] in Malay. The phonetic realizations of /r/ in English, Mandarin Chinese
and Malay
are respectively produced as approximant [], retroflex [] and trill [r]. As for
vowels,
English shares five vowels with Mandarin Chinese and Malay. These shared
vowels are
mostly long vowels. The number of unshared vowels which are specific to English
is slightly
more than the number of shared vowels in Mandarin Chinese and Malay. Those
unshared
vowels are predominantly short vowels. In fact, Mandarin Chinese and Malay
regard all
vowels as neutral in length as there is no distinction of vowel length in either
language
(Phoon, 2010).
The following table (Table 1) shows the differences between English, Mandarin
Chinese and Malay in terms of consonants and vowels.
Table 1
Comparison of the sounds of English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay
, f, s, ,
, tsh
, t, t
h
, t, t
h
,
m, n, l, r
(inclusive of glides)
3 glides (j, w, )
19 consonants
(inclusive of glides)
b, p, d, t, g, k, s, h, m , n,
, , , t,
2 glides (j, w)
Syllable-final
consonants
20 consonants
b, p, d, t, g, k, v, f, ,
, z, s, , , m, n, ,
l, d, t
2 consonants
n,
8 consonants
, s, h, m, n, , l, r
Vowels 13 monophthongs
, :, , e, , :, , ,
i:, , :, , u:
8 diphthongs
a, a, , e, ,
e, ,
9 monophthongs
i, u, y, o, , , , ,
9 diphthongs
ae, ei, ow, ao, i, i,
u, uo, y
4 triphthongs
iao, iow, uae, uei
6 monophthongs
i, e, a, u, o,
3 diphthongs
ai, au, ua
(Adapted from Phoon, 2010)
As can been seen from Table 1, the number of consonants in English, Mandarin
Chinese and Malay does not differ much. The most conspicuous differences
between English,
Mandarin Chinese and Malay are the number of consonants used in the first and
final syllable.
English has comparable number of consonants in the first and final syllable.
Mandarin
Chinese has 24 consonants in first syllable, but only two consonants in the final
syllable.
Malay has more syllable final consonants than Mandarin Chinese, but still less
than English.
Both Mandarin Chinese and Malay have fewer syllable final consonants than
English. It is
presumed that the speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Malay will find realization
of
consonants in final syllables difficult (Phoon, 2010).
The vowel system of Mandarin Chinese and Malay is relatively simpler than
English.
In fact, both languages regard all vowels as neutral in length as there is no
distinction of
vowel lengths phonemically in either language. Therefore, it might be expected
that
considerable variation will be seen in ME in terms of vowel length (Phoon, 2010).
There were two research questions that were attempted to address in the study:
1. What are the common characteristics of pronunciation errors made by the six
Chinese
Studies undergraduate students?
2. Does the Malay Language influence the English pronunciation of the six
Chinese
Studies undergraduate students?
The findings of the present study would illustrate the common characteristics of
pronunciation errors as evidence of cross-linguistic differences in phonetics and
phonology.
In other words, the interference from different sound systems could be seen as
an important
factor accounting for these pronunciation errors (Gao, 2005). It was also hoped
that the
findings could help English Language teachers/trainers/instructors understand
the
characteristics of pronunciation errors and help to improve their students
awareness and
understanding of the interference of Mandarin Chinese and Malay on English
pronunciation.
3.2 Subjects
For the purpose of this study, the subjects comprising six Chinese studies
crucial to maintain consistency in the process of data collection. Six of them had
their
primary education in Chinese National schools in which Chinese was the medium
of
instruction. English was taught as an additional subject within the school
curriculum.
Subsequently, all of them had their secondary school education in which Malay
was the
medium of instruction. This was important in order to examine whether there
was
phonological transfer from Malay language to their English pronunciation. All the
subjects
spoke Mandarin Chinese at home daily and rarely used English in their daily
conversation.
A battery operated audio tape recorder (Sony, TCM-150) and a 60-minute blank
cassette (Sony EF) were used for recording work. Nokia C5 voice recorder was
kept at hand
for contingency purposes.
A list of words was given. The list comprised 20 words. The words prepared in
the
word list were mostly common words in order to make the subjects feel more
relaxed and
unaware what words were being analysed. A list of 20 words was insufficient to
diagnose the
subjects pronunciation errors. Thus, the subjects were also required to read
another eight
short sentences.
Before the recording process, the subjects were asked to familiarise themselves
with
the words and sentences through reading them once. The recording was
conducted
individually in a quiet room and took approximately five minutes for each
subject. Each
subject was required to read at a normal speed.
Under the guidance of phonemic transcription in Cambridge English Pronouncing
Dictionary, the recording was replayed many times and the pronunciation errors
were noted.
A list of 20 words and eight sentences were given to the six subjects. Those
words
and sentences were designed to diagnose pronunciation difficulties of the six
subjects. Based
on subjects native language (Mandarin Chinese), their pronunciation errors were
diagnosed
into four categories: the absence of certain English sounds in Mandarin Chinese;
consonant
cluster confusion; omission of grammatical endings and contractions; and long
and short
vowels distinctions. At the same time, some words which might be the influence
of Malay
Language were also included to examine the errors
3.5 Assumptions
The subjects might encounter problems with combining sounds into words. They
might have problems in pronouncing both initial and final consonant clusters.
They might
also omit sounds in the final position especially in contractions and grammatical
endings or
insert a schwa in consonant clusters. Consonant clusters do not exist in both
Mandarin
Chinese and Malay and therefore they might find it difficult to insert them into
words.
Besides, the subjects were also expected to show their failure in differentiating
between long vowels and short vowels. They might make errors in either
shortening or
lengthening the vowel sounds.
Finally, the subjects might also make errors due to the influence of Malay
phonology.
There are certain Malay words which sound very similar to English. They share
the same
meanings but differ in spellings. Hence, the subjects might not be aware of the
influence of
Malay sounds in their English pronunciation as they assumed that those words
share the same
pronunciation.
4.1 Results
(English and Malay). The analysis aimed to help the learners to have a better
understanding
of how these errors originate and try to avoid making these errors repeatedly.
The following
table presents the pronunciation errors made by the six Chinese studies
undergraduates.
Table 2
Pronunciation errors analysis of six Chinese studies undergraduates
Chinese)
sk 2 - Omission of /l/ in final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
2
silk
slk
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
si:k 5 - Lengthening of vowel //
- Omission of /l/ in final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
eg 1 - Simplification of
diphthong /e/ with /e/
- Substitution of final stop
/t/ with /g/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
eg 2, 6 - Substitution of final stop
/t/ with /g/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
5
eight
et
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
e 4 - Simplification of
diphthong /e/ with /e/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Glotalisation of final stop
/t/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
pkt
bk 5 - Confusion between
bilabial stops /p/ and /b/ in
first syllable
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
- Substitution of // with //
in final syllable
(Idiosyncrasy)
b:ge 6 - Confusion between
bilabial stops /p/ and /b/ in
first syllable
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
- Lengthening of vowel //
- Confusion between velar
stops /k/ and /g/ in final
syllable
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
- Substitution of // with /e/
in final syllable, influence
of Malay word [poket]
(Influence of Malay)
- Glotalisation of final stop
/t/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
tes 1, 5 - Substitution of /i:/ with
/e/
(Idiosyncrasy)
- Confusion between final
fricatives /z/ and /s/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
7 tease ti:z
test 3 - Substitution of /i:/ with
/e/
- Substitution of /z/ with
consonant cluster /st/
(Idiosyncrasy)
8 sofa sf s:fa: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Substitution of // with
/:/ in first syllable
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Substitution of // with
/:/ in first syllable and //
with /a:/ in final syllable,
influence of Malay word
[poket]
(Influence of Malay)
11
Phenomenon
fnmnn
fnmnn
ticket
tkt
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Substitution of // with /e/
in final syllable, influence
vase
va:z
(Idiosyncrasy)
sla 2, 5 Omission of final fricative
/s/
(Idiosyncrasy)
sls 3 - Substitution of /a/ with /
/
(Idiosyncrasy)
s 4 - Omission of /l/ in initial
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Omission of final fricative
/s/
(Idiosyncrasy)
sp:k 1 - Substitution of // with
/:/
(Idiosyncrasy)
- Substitution of /n/ with
/k/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
sp:n 2, 4, 5 - Substitution of // with
/:/
- Omission of // in final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
20
sponge
spn
(Influence of Malay)
- Glotalisation of final stop
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
22 glass gla:s gra:s 4, 5, 6 - Confusion between lateral
/l/ and approximant /r/
(Idiosyncrasy)
frezli 1 - Substitution of /e/ with /e
/
(Idiosyncrasy)
freshly
freli
squeezed
skwi:zd
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
skwi: 6 - Substitution of /zd/ with
/n/
- Insertion of // in last
syllable
(Idiosyncrasy)
25 orange rn rn 2, 3, 4, 6 - Omission of //, influence
of Malay word [oren]
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
26 stopped stpt stp 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 - Omission of past tense
marker (final consonant
cluster)
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
plis 1, 4, 5, 6 - Substitution of // with
//, influence of Malay
word [polis]
- Shortening of vowel /i:/
(Influence of Malay)
27
police
pli:s
det 1, 3, 6 - Simplification of
diphthong /e/ with /e/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
30 date det
de 4 - Glotalisation of final stop
/t/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
31 next nekst nest 1, 6 Omission of /k/ in final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
32 meeting mi:t mi:d 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Shortening of vowel //
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Confusion between
Talk
t:k
/:/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
w: 2 - Glotalisation of final stop
/k/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
37
take
tek
Chinese)
40 wasted westd west 1, 5 - Omission of past tense
marker
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
dn 4 - Omission of contraction
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
41
didnt
ddnt
dd 5 - Omission of contraction
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
t 1, 5, 6 - Substitution of // with
//
- Omission of final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
42
told
tld
t: 4 -Substitution of // with
/:/
- Omission of final
consonant cluster
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
43 that t d 3, 4, 6 - Substitution of // with /d/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
- Glotalisation of final stop
/t/
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese or Malay)
44 stamp stmps stmp 1, 2, 4, 5 - Omission of plural marker
(Influence of Mandarin
Chinese)
***Idiosyncrasy refers to a particular way of pronouncing sounds; an unusual
feature.
Substitution of English sounds occurs due to the fact that some of the English
sounds
do not exist in the Mandarin Chinese. The voiced palatal fricative // does not
exist in
Mandarin Chinese, one of subjects replaced // with /s/ in vision /vn/. Six out
of the six
subjects replaced // with /s/ in leisure /ler/.
// and // were substituted with /t/ and /d/ respectively. Five out of six subjects
could
not pronounce the voiceless interdental fricative // in theory /ri/ as it does
not exist in
Mandarin Chinese. Thus they replaced it with the nearest sound /t/ while only one
of the
subjects replaced it with /d/. A significant finding about the // sound was that six
out of the
six subjects substituted voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/ for // which appears in
the middle
of the word birthday /b:e/. Moreover, voiced interdental fricative // was also
substituted
with /d/ as in that /t/.
Four out of the six subjects pronounced orange /rn/ as /rn/ eliminating
the final
voiced palatal affricative which does not exist in Mandarin Chinese.
The error regarding /v/ was not randomly made. The voiced labio-dental fricative
/v/
does not occur in most Chinese dialects. As a result, Chinese speakers could
treat /v/ as a
semi-vowel /w/. For example, one of the subjects pronounced vase /va:z/ as
[west], which
/v/ is substituted with /w/.
The use of monophthong /e/ for diphthong /e/ occurred due to the absence of
/e/
sound in Mandarin Chinese. Two out of the six subjects replaced /e/ with /e/ in
eight /et/.
Similarly, three out of the six subjects replaced /e/ with /e/ in date /det/. The
subjects had
trouble in perceiving the sounds which do not exist in their native language and
thus they
substituted those sounds with the nearest equivalents (Zhang & Yin, 2009).
In the present study, final consonant clusters were greatly simplified to a single
consonant
by the subjects. Apart from simplification of final consonant clusters, the subjects
also
eliminated the final consonant clusters from the words.
Examples:
Five out of the six subjects did not pronounce the final consonant cluster
correctly in silk /s
lk/. Two of them omitted the /k/ from the alveolar-velar /lk/ cluster while three of
them
omitted the lateral /l/ from the alveolar-velar /lk/ cluster.
Three out of the six subjects omitted /l/ from the alveolar-bilabial /lm/ cluster in
film /flm/.
One out of the six subjects omitted both /k/ and /s/ from the velar-alveolar /ks/
cluster in
fix /fks/.
Two out of the six subjects omitted /k/ from the velar-alveolar-alveolar /kst/
cluster in next
/nekst/.
One out the six subjects omitted /s/ from the alveolar-alveolar /st/ cluster in
coast /kst/.
Four out of six subjects omitted both /l/ and /d/ from alveolar-alveolar /ld/
cluster in told
/tld/.
However, there was only an error in initial consonant clusters which the subject
omitted /l/ from the alveolar-alveolar /sl/ cluster in the word slice /slas/.
Alternatively, the subjects inserted schwas into the consonant clusters. Two out
of the
six subjects inserted a schwa in consonant cluster /lm/, for example, one of them
pronounced
film /flm/ as [flm] while another one pronounced as [flm]. A schwa was also
inserted
in a consonant cluster by deleting the final sound. For example, one of the
subjects produced
squeezed /skwi:zd/ as [skwi:z] by eliminating the final stop /d/ and replacing it
with a
schwa.
There were four types of grammatical endings anticipated in this study. They
were
grammatical endings of third person singular, plural form, past tense and
contraction. All of
these do not occur in Mandarin Chinese grammar. Two out of the six subjects
omitted the
final fricative /z/ in orders /:dz/ which represents grammatical endings of third
person
singular. Omission of the plural marker occurred in stamps /stmps/ where four
out of the
six subjects omitted the /s/ from bilabial-alveolar /sp/ cluster.
Omission of the past tense marker also could be observed. Because of the
likelihood
of simplification of final consonant clusters, a small number of past tense words,
where the
past tense morpheme was realised as a consonant cluster, were included to
examine the
pronunciation errors of the subjects. Four out of six subjects had difficulties with
squeezed
/skwi:zd/ where there is a final consonant cluster. Subsequently, the omission
of /t/ occurred
in stopped /stpt/ where five of the six students eliminated /t/ from bilabialalveolar cluster.
Moreover, two out of the six subjects produced wasted /westd/ as [west]
where the past
tense marker was omitted.
Omission of contraction occurred in didnt /ddnt/ where two out of the six
subjects omitted the ending sounds as there is no such grammar rule in
Mandarin Chinese.
One of the two subjects produced the word as [dn] while another pronounced it
as [dd].
4. Long and short vowel distinctions
Some subjects in the present study did not consistently distinguish long and
short
vowels. Most of the Mandarin Chinese vowels are quite identical with their
English
counterparts in terms of manner and position of articulation, but there are more
vowel
contrasts in English than in Mandarin Chinese, and some of the contrasts such as
/i/ and /i:/ or
// and /u:/ do not exist in Chinese at all. In this study, words with short vowels
showed the
greater tendency to be realised as long vowels.
Examples:
Five out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in vision /vi:n/.
Five out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in silk /slk/.
One out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /:/ in pocket /pkt/.
Two out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in fill /fl/.
One out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in ticket /tkt/.
One out of the six subjects shortened the /i:/ for // in squeezed /skwi:zd/.
Five out of the six subjects shortened the /i:/ for /i/ in police /plis/.
Three out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in the first syllable in
speeding
/spi:d/.
One out of the six subjects lengthened the // for /i:/ in fix /fks/.
Five out of the six subjects shortened /i:/ for // in the second syllable in
meeting /mi:d/.
Two out the six subjects shortened /:/ for // in talk /t:k/.
There were several anticipated pronunciation errors that could not be found in
the
categories of the subjects pronunciation errors. For example, it was anticipated
that the
substitution of /s/ or /z/ for the voiced interdental fricative // might occur among
Chinese
speakers. However, in this study, the substitution of /s/ or /z/ for // was not
articulated by
any of the six subjects.
There were several new findings of pronunciation errors of the subjects, possibly
resulting from the influence of Mandarin Chinese or Malay in this study.
1. Glottalisation of stops
Glottalisation of stops (/k/ and /t/) in final syllable was widespread in the speech
production of the subjects. In the present study, the voiceless stop /t/ was
glottalised more
than the voiceless stop /k/. Examples:
eight [e] date [de]
pocket [pke] talk [t:]
ticket [dke] work [w:]
2. Confusion between voiced stops (/b/, /d/ and /g/) and voiceless stops (/p/, /t/
and /k/)
Voiceless stops such as /p/, /t/ and /k/ were occasionally pronounced with
minimal
aspiration and sounded like voiced stops /b/, /d/ and /g/.
Examples:
Four of the six subjects pronounced voiced stop /b/ for voiceless stop /p/ in the
first syllable
of the word pocket /pkt/. In the second syllable, three out of the six subjects
pronounced
the voiced stop /g/ for voiceless stop /k/.
Four out of the six subjects pronounced the voiced stop /d/ for the voiceless
stop /t/ in the
first syllable of the word ticket /tkt/. In the second syllable, four out of the six
subjects
pronounced the voiced stop /g/ for the voiceless stop /k/.
Two of the six subjects pronounced the voiced stop /g/ for the voiceless stop /k/
in cake /ke
k/.
One of the six subjects pronounced the voiced stop /b/ for the voiceless stop /p/
in the first
syllable of the word 'police /pli:s/.
One of the six subjects pronounced the voiced stop /d/ for the voiceless stop /t/
in take /te
k/.
Three out of the six subjects replaced lateral /l/ with the approximant /r/ in
glass/gla:s/. The voiced alveolar lateral /l/ and the voiced alveolar
approximant /r/ are hard
to describe as they share very similar sounds. Thus, it was assumed that these
subjects had
trouble in perceiving /l/ and /r/ sounds.
The word theory /ri/ was produced as teori [ti:ri] in Malay by five out of
the six
subjects. One of them produced the word as [di:ri] which was different from the
others.
The word sofa /sf/ was produced as sofa [s:fa:] in Malay by six out of the
six subjects.
They substituted // with /:/ in the first syllable while // with /a:/ in the second
syllable.
One of the subjects produced film /flm/ as filem [flm] in Malay. Similarly,
another
subject produced the word as [flm] which sounds very close to filem in Malay.
One of the subjects produced cake /kek/ as [kk], which sounds similar with
kek [kek] in
Malay, which the diphthong /e/ was replaced with /e/. Similarly, another subject
produced
the word as [ge], which sounds very close to kek in Malay.
The final consonant cluster /n/ was sampled in orange /rn/, which was
produced as
oren /rn/ in Malay by four out of six subjects. There is likelihood that Malay
pronunciation /rn/, which only contains a final singleton /n/, might have
influenced the
production of the /n/ clusters in English.
The word police /pli:s/ was produced as polis /plis/ in Malay by four out of
six subjects.
One of the subjects produced it as /blis/ which /p/ sound was substituted with
/b/ sound,
also sounds very close to polis in Malay. The vowel /i:/ is shortened as there is
no
distinction in vowel length in Malay.
5.1 Discussion
2010). In consonants, for instance //, //, //, // and /v/ are unshared sounds
specific to
English. // and // were realised as stops /t/ and /d/ respectively. In addition, in
the present
study, the // sound which appears in the middle was realised as /f/ sound.
Substitution of
English sounds occurs due to the fact that some of the English sounds do not
exist in the
Mandarin Chinese. The substitution of /s/ for // sound which does not exist in
Mandarin
Chinese was produced as in words like vision /vn/ and leisure /ler/. Final
voiced palatal
affricative // was eliminated as it does not exist in Mandarin Chinese.
As for vowels, the diphthong /e/ was substituted with the monophthong /e/,
as /e/
does not exist in Mandarin Chinese. When Chinese students had trouble in
perceiving the
sounds which do not exist in their native language, they tend to find the nearest
equivalent to
substitute those new sounds (Zhang & Yin, 2009). Diphthongs are like long
vowels, thus
diphthongs which are influenced by Mandarin Chinese will be short (Zhao, 1995).
Hence, the
simplification of diphthong tends to be produced by the Chinese students. The
distinction
between long vowels and short vowels do not exist in Mandarin Chinese. Thus it
is common
that Chinese students have difficulties in making the distinction between //
and /i:/ or // and
/u:/.
Hokkien and Cantonese. According to Tan (1998), another possible reason for the
high
occurrence of glottalisation is influence from the extensive borrowing of English
words into
Malay (as cited in Phoon, 2010). Hence, it is not surprising that these words tend
to be
pronounced with glottal stops in English.
Voiceless stops such as /p/, /t/ and /k/ were occasionally pronounced with
minimal
aspiration and respectively sounded like voiced stops /b/, /d/ and /g/. Aspiration
is used in
The influence of the Malay language contributes to some of the most remarkable
characteristics of ME. In Malaysia, there are many borrowed and adopted words
and terms
from English into Malay. These words are adopted from English mostly to suit
Standard
Malay phonetics and phonology system which is different from English in some
ways, such
as the sound-spelling discrepancy of English words, which is almost non-existent
in Malay. It
5.2 Limitations
There are some limitations in this study. First, the number of the subjects
selected
could have been larger, hindering a complete and thorough generalisation to the
Malaysian
population. In future research, more subjects could be recruited.
Second, not all errors made by subjects resulting from native language
interference
were taken into investigation due to limited time. Besides, there is no direct
evidence to show
that some of the errors are only derived from native interference. For instance,
there may be
other factors influencing the development of learner errors such as learners
insufficient
knowledge of phonology and phonetics, spelling, age, attitude and psychological
factors.
Third, this study is limited to the study of the consonants and vowels system
between
the native language and the target languages. Thus in the read speech, the
suprasegmental
(intonation, stress and rhythm) and segmental (assimilation, elision and linking)
sections of
the recording are disregarded.
Finally, it is not enough to reveal all pronunciation errors made by the subjects
based
on reading words and sentences only. There could be better results if the data
analysis be
based on natural and informal conversations. For instance, an interview of
subjects views
towards pronunciation could be conducted.
5.3 Recommendations
Many issues for future research could be raised from the present thesis.
According to
Luo (2002), besides native language interference, the reason students made
pronunciation
errors in English was due to incorrect knowledge of the English phonemes (as
cited in Chang,
1996). The developmental patterns of Mandarin Chinese and Malay acquired by
ME
speaking learners should be studied in order to observe the interaction among
the three
developing phonological systems (Chang, 1996).
perceptible to the author in this study might be revealed under detailed acoustic
analysis.
It is not easy to generalise whether these pronunciation errors are really
representative
of a wide range of Chinese learners of English. Therefore, further cross-sectional
studies are
needed to highlight these pronunciation problems among Chinese learners of
English.
Analysis without practice is useless and impossible to lead to the mastery of the
language.
Jesperson suggested: Practice what is right again and again (as cited in Francis,
1946).
Consequently, further researches are also encouraged to explore communicative
strategies in
pronunciation teaching with a focus on some of the problematic sounds and
features
associated with the Chinese language background when helping to develop the
Chinese
learners comprehensibility and oral fluency in English (Gao, 2005).
5.4 Conclusion
Chinese and Malay are very different from English in terms of speech sound
inventory and
phonotactic structures, in the Malaysian context the difference is actually less
because of the
characteristics that have already been incorporated into ME (Phoon, 2010).
Some findings based on CA and EA have been questioned in SLA. In fact, not all
the
pronunciation errors listed will certainly match all the errors that will be made by
the Chinese
learners of English. Neither can a teacher identify all the errors that the students
have made.
However, CA can offer instructive information for EA whereas EA can prove the
importance
of CA. Under the guidance of CA, this study has illustrated the common
characteristics of
pronunciation errors of Chinese learners of English by analysing their native
linguistic
background, which illustrates how ones native language influences ones English
pronunciation. The importance of pronunciation, which has been long ignored in
the
development of speaking skills, thus, is encouraged to be taken into
consideration (Gao,
2005). It is hoped that the findings of the study will help English Language
teachers to
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APPENDICES
1. vision
2. silk
3. theory
4. spoon
5. eight
6. pocket
7. tease
8. sofa
9. advertisement
10. film
11. search
12. phenomenon
13. string
14. birthday
15. fill
16. camera
17. ticket
18. vase
19. geography
20. realistic
Appendix B: Sentences
1. She orders a slice of sponge cake and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.